News

Judge orders withdrawal of Detroit bankruptcy petition

A judge has ordered a Detroit petition for bankruptcy to be withdrawn. Photo: Associated Press

DETROIT (Reuters) – A Michigan judge on Friday ordered Detroit’s state-appointed emergency manager to withdraw the federal bankruptcy petition he filed for the city on Thursday.

Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Rosemarie Aquilina’s order said the 2012 Michigan law that allowed Governor Rick Snyder to approve the city’s bankruptcy filing, the largest municipal bankruptcy filing ever in the United States, violated the Michigan Constitution.

The declaratory judgment came in lawsuits filed this month by Detroit pension funds, retirees and workers, which sought to prevent a bankruptcy filing that would ultimately impair retirement benefits in violation of constitutional protections for those benefits.